Victoria Terminus, Mumbai

Washington University: 19th Century Architectural Photography Collection; During the volatile and creative period of the 19th century, a distinguished Bombay-based architect, Frederick William Stevens, developed a synthesis of Gothic and indigenous styles that produced some of the most exuberant buildings in British India. Following the Royal Alfred Sailors' Home (1872?6; now the Council Hall), in 1878 Stevens won the commission for a new city terminus for the Great Indian Peninsula Railway. The Victoria Terminus (1878?87), known as VT, is the finest Victorian Gothic building in India. Inspired by Scott's St Pancras Station in London, it is a monumental affirmation of Victorian civic and imperial pride and an effective measure of the economic stature of the city. Crowned by a huge dome and interwoven with eclectic Indo-Saracenic details, it is an exuberant display of polychromatic stone, decorated tiles, marble and stained glass.Grove Dictionary of Art